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About

Robin N. Salesse is a leading researcher at the intersection of social neuroscience, human-robot interaction, and clinical psychiatry. Her work focuses on understanding and quantifying the socio-motor deficits underlying schizophrenia, with the ambitious goal of developing novel, non-invasive diagnostic tools and therapeutic interventions. Salesse’s most influential contribution is the "mirror-game" paradigm, a low-cost coordination task that captures subtle biomarkers of motor and social dysfunction. Her 2017 paper on this topic (42 citations) demonstrates how solo movement patterns can serve as potential diagnostic biomarkers for schizophrenia, offering a groundbreaking alternative to subjective clinical assessments. She has also pioneered the use of humanoid robots to study social cognition in this population, exploring how patients perceive robot emotions (37 citations) and respond to robotic facial feedback (30 citations). Her work on unintentional synchrony (15 citations) provides a foundational framework for designing more intuitive human-robot interactions. As a key contributor to the ALTEREGO European project, Salesse is helping to build interactive artificial agents capable of sustained, therapeutic engagement with individuals suffering from social deficits. Her research is shaping a future where technology not only diagnoses but also helps rehabilitate the social brain.